Sunday, January 31, 2010

Violin piece of the day: Accolaÿ

I've got a student who wants to learn the Accolaÿ concerto in a minor, and I'm more than happy to learn new pieces that my students want to learn. My repertoire growing up, after all, was kind of limited, and it may be a little cruel just to keep them caged inside the pieces I played at their age.

But how did my teachers miss this one??

This is a beautiful segue from the Suzuki book six or so into more complicated concertos and sonatas (Haydn D Major, Beethoven Spring sonata, etc.) While the shifts aren't too complicated and the fast passages fall pretty neatly under the fingers, there are some real musical challenges in this that I would have loved to learn and take on to know how to play concertos better. It's also not a full three-movement-er, just one big movement that takes you pretty logically from fast to slow to fast again, as well as from minor to major. (I can usually live without ending in a major key, but I suppose I'm not totally against it.)

I remember getting lots of little pieces after I got out of the Suzuki books: the first movement of a Bach concerto, the first movement of the Haydn D major, Thaïs Meditation, and Paganini's Moto Perpetuo. All good at gaining a few mega-important skills, but I then found myself thrown into Mozart D Major and Praeludium and Allegro shortly after. I think a few more steps in between would have helped me a little.

Violinists - any more important pieces that can bridge the gap between La Folia and ANYTHING Mozart?

2 comments:

Rocketgirl said...

Holy snap, how did you miss this?? Accolay was rite of passage for my aunt's studio after book 4 or so. This has a good list of a few student concerti:

http://www.amazon.com/Concertos-My-Childhood-Perlman-Foster/dp/B00000I7WE

Ahhh, Scene de Ballet... And the Ten Have allegro brillante too - I remember loving that one. My sadistic (and wonderful) aunt had us go from the Accolay straight to the Bruch. Sheez!

A New Leaf said...

Accolay to Bruch?? Yikes!!

Thanks for the link! I will have to check this out - I have no idea how I missed this growing up.